Sweet Sorghum
Objectives:
Sweet sorghum improvement
- Investigate the genetics of high sugar concentration in plant introduction materials.
- Select a high yielding genotype with early maturity, disease resistance, lodging resistance, and high juice brix.
- Continue purifying and making available seed of released and heirloom sweet sorghum varieties.
- Evaluate the sugar content and juice yield from sweet sorghum varieties in Kentucky related to ethanol production.
- Calculate the fermentation efficiency of sweet sorghum juice.
- Measure the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin content of the bagasse to evaluate it potential as a feedstock for pretreatment and enzyme saccarification.
- Investigate various methods to safely store sorghum juice up to twelve months before fermentation.
- Estimate the economics of sugar production and juice storage using an engineering economic model.
The long-term objective is to improve sweet sorghum varieties for increased production and profitability.
Utilization of sweet sorghum as a feedstock for ethanol production
The overall objective is to evaluate the feasibility of using sweet sorghum as a feedstock for ethanol plants. The objective will be accomplished using the following specific tasks:
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This site was last updated on June 10, 2009
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